by Gavin Drake

A SENIOR lawyer has been instructed by the Evangelical Alliance to investigate claims that a best-selling author and evangelist fabricated his remarkable life-story.

Tony Anthony and trustees from his Essex-based global evangelism charity Avanti Ministries gave evidence to the inquiry, which was launched after it was revealed that his autobiography, on which the charity is based, is built on fantasy and plagiarism.

Tony Anthony’s “Taming the Tiger”, distributed in the UK through the Christian publisher Authentic Media, has sold more than 1.5 million copies in 25 countries. On the back of it, Anthony travels the world preaching the gospel in prisons, schools and churches as far away as Asia, South Africa and South America.

In the book, Tony Anthony says he was raised in China by his grandfather, a Kung-Fu grand master, at the age of four. He was trained in the martial arts and became Kung Fu world champion three times. He then moved to Cyprus, becoming an elite bodyguard to businessmen, gangsters and diplomats before being jailed in Nicosia Central Prison for a series of thefts from hotels. It was in prison that Tony Anthony says he became a Christian.

Questions were asked about the authenticity of Taming the Tiger ever since it was first published in 2004. Critics were quick to point out that it reads like a work of fiction; and now an intensive investigation by a group of church leaders suggests that it is just that.

The investigation began after Mike Hancock resigned from his post as a director of Avanti Ministries Ltd, the charitable company set up by Anthony to support his work. Hancock had asked for proof of Tony Anthony’s claims but was met with evasion. “I understood that I had a moral and ethical responsibility to ensure that his story could be thoroughly verified. I was unable to persuade my fellow directors of the need to do this. I therefore resigned from Avanti and pursued the search for truth with other like-minded Christians,” he said.

He, together with another former director and a small informal group of concerned church leaders, set about investigating Tony Anthony’s background. Their findings were presented to the trustees of Avanti, the Evangelical Alliance and Anthony’s publisher, Authentic Media.

As a result of the evidence obtained by the church leaders, the Evangelical Alliance launched a formal inquiry which is due to report any time now.

The informal investigators began by rebutting claims made by Anthony in his book.

One of the long-standing objections raised about Tony Anthony’s story is that there is no record, anywhere, to support claims that he won any Kung Fu competition; let alone that he was three-times world champion. Anthony attempts to deal with this criticism on his website, saying: “The competitions that Tony Anthony took part in are over 200 years old – and they are derived from the lineage of ‘Gong So’ who goes back to the Manchu Dynasty. These competitions are held in mainland China and as they are so specialised Tony Anthony have not known them to be publicised outside of the relevant circles, which is another reason why Tony Anthony doubt very much that you would ever find these competitions advertised on a Google search engine.”

But scrutiny of the book’s text reveals that many of the passages detailing Kung Fu techniques were copied, wholesale, from a specialist martial arts website. One passage is lifted from a book about Bruce Lee.

The investigators went further: Tony Anthony claims to have worked as an elite bodyguard to “a number of wealthy jet-setting clients” before becoming “first hand man” and close protection officer to the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to London, Amin Fahed. But there is no record of any Saudi Arabian diplomat called Amin Fahed. The Saudi ambassador to London at the time was Sheikh Nasser Almanqour.

Tony Anthony has long-blamed the discrepancies on “western naivety” for not understanding that some details would be changed because of the “underworld and criminal nature” of his pre-conversion activities.

But Tony Anthony’s story really came apart when the investigators discovered his true identity: he was born Andonis Andreou Athanasiou on 30 July 1971 in London’s University College Hospital. Tony Anthony has now confirmed that this is his true identity.

But he has not explained how he could have been leading five-man security teams, checking hotel rooms for IEDs, engaging in James Bond-style high-speed gun-toting chases through the streets of Riyadh and using Kung Fu kicks to overpower armed kidnappers in Switzerland; when he could only have been aged between 13 or 14 and 16 or 17; dependent upon which version of the book is used.

Having ascertained his true identity the investigators discovered that Tony Anthony could not have been taken to China by his Kung Fu grandfather when he was four: Anthony’s grandfather was a laundry worker in Cardiff who later owned a café in Streatham. He died seven years before Anthony was born.

Anthony also claims in his book that his father was Italian. In fact he was Cypriot who anglicised the family name from Athanasiou to Anthony.

Tony Anthony’s deception isn’t restricted to his book. When he married his wife Sara in Rayleigh United Reformed Church, Southend, in 1995, he claimed he was 25 years old; but he was actually just 23.

He used his correct date of birth on official records when he registered Avanti Ministries Ltd in 2003; but two years later he submitted a change of details form to Companies House amending his birth year to 1969.

A spokesman for Companies House said they would assume the change was to correct a previous mistake, saying: “We accept all documents in good faith and would not actively pursue them to confirm it was correct information.”

The investigators sent their findings to Anthony’s publishers. In the US, Baker Publishing dropped plans to publish a re-telling of Anthony’s story, saying: “We do not plan to publish Burning Tiger at this time. The reasons for that decision are between the publisher and author.”

Anthony’s UK publisher, the ironically named Authentic Media, said it was “working with the author and alongside his ministry Avanti and the Evangelical Alliance to look into the claims of the book and establish their truth.” Managing director Steve Mitchell said he said he could not comment further while they were “in the middle of a process.”

Speaking today, Steve Mitchell confirmed that the Evangelical Alliance Inquiry was due to report by the end of June; but that he had not seen its findings: “Authentic is not a recipient of the report and hasn’t seen a copy, we have requested feedback from the author and are waiting for a response.”

Taming the Tiger was still available to purchase on Authentic’s website this evening several months after the company was told of the results of the investigation.

In public presentations, Tony Anthony continues to claim he was raised in China by his grandfather, despite admitting in response to the informal investigation that he was raised by “a distant relative” as part of a “complex family arrangement”.

Tony Anthony pulled out of an interview in March, requesting instead that questions were put to him in writing. In response, he declined to say why he used a fraudulent date of birth when he got married or why he changed his date of birth with Companies House.

He confirmed only that an inquiry had been launched, adding: “currently it is at its very early stages, and is yet to be completely formalised, so we are unable to provide any additional details at this time. When available, further detailed information will be placed in the public domain.”

Geoff Elliott, the other former Avanti trustee who took part in the church leaders’ investigation, said: “Tony Anthony’s reaction and response to a well-intentioned and sensible suggestion about how directors of Avanti could validate his testimony without allowing confidential and personal information to be made public strengthened my conviction that something was not right.

“I am sad at the extent of the deception and that this has impacted many people over the last 10 years; and concerned that when the truth comes out, as it undoubtedly will, this lack of truthfulness will damage the faith of those people who have been led to faith by Tony and his testimony.”

Mike Hancock, commented: “Many have received the dramatic elements of Tony’s testimony in good faith believing that it must have been verified as true. They have a right to know that it has never been verified. The evidence that has been uncovered does not verify his story.”

Another member of the investigation team, the Revd Carl Chambers, leader of Christ Church in Brighton, said: “I am deeply saddened that Tony should have been able to continue for so long in his deceit. I firmly believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead – that is the truth. It is hypocritical for an evangelist therefore to fabricate stories about himself whilst proclaiming the truth.”

And David Buick, a French-based prison chaplain, who also took part in the investigation said: “I became concerned that somebody speaking in schools and prisons worldwide about their transformed life could be making much of their story up, and decided to find out more. For followers of Jesus, love and truth are supposed to go hand in hand. Checking out fantastic claims is a vital part of genuine faith, and our findings show how important it is that we do just that.”

“A devious and manipulative man” – judge

In Taming the Tiger, Tony Anthony explains that, a few years after returning to the UK, he was sentenced to 15-months in prison for a hit-and-run incident in which a woman motorcyclist was killed; and for harassment after a heated phone call to a Greek restaurant.

In the book’s version of the accident, Anthony says that he thought he had hit a “small deer or fox” that had “limped back into the undergrowth” because he had stopped his car and couldn’t see anything on the road.

He says that when he was questioned by police, “We couldn’t tell our story fast enough. No more lies. We were both desperate to spill out details of the dreadful accident. I couldn’t care less about the interrogation. I wanted to die. All I could think about was the woman I had killed.”

But news reports of the police investigation, inquest and trial reveal a very different picture. The woman who died was Elizabeth Bracewell, a 39-year-old girl-guide helper, and sister of the former Everton, Newcastle, Fulham and England footballer Paul Bracewell.

She was discovered in plain view in the middle of the road by a motorist who saw Anthony’s car speed off. And far from admitting the story, Tony Anthony and his wife Sarah told a series of lies and pleaded not guilty when they first appeared in court.

They were both sentenced for perverting the course of justice. The judge, Mr Recorder Stevenson, described Tony Anthony as a “devious and manipulative man” who had “deliberately embroidered his story” to throw police off the scent.

“You created a dishonest and false story. . . You set to cover-up your involvement. It seems to me you wriggled and wriggled as long as you could to try and rid yourself of this offence until you could do so no further.”

And rather than the single heated phone conversation with a Greek restaurant that’s detailed in the book, the court heard that Tony Anthony had made a series of abusive and racist phone calls to a former employer and to restaurant owners in Epsom, Surrey, and London.

The most surprising aspect of the court case is that Tony Anthony was convicted using a false date of birth.

A certificate of conviction released by Reading Crown Court shows his date of birth as 7th August 1969 rather than the true date of birth, 30th July 1971.

CORRECTION: This article was corrected on 7 October 2013. The original referred to Tony Anthony having been taken to China by his grandfather. In fact the book refers to Tony Anthony having been taken to China by a stranger and raised by his grandfather.

Update (12 July 2013): The Evangelical Alliance and Avanti Ministries issued a joint statement late last night confirming that Tony Anthony’s story is false and that Avanti are withdrawing support for Taming the Tiger.

Thank you, finally some peace of mind. I criticised him a lot some years ago and became almost obsessed by proving to my churchleaders that he was lying. I spend way too much time writing and talking about it, instead of praying over it. I have since prayed a lot over it, so I’m glad to finally get some clarity. I don’t have a sense of victory, just sadness. Let’s pray for him and for help to forgive him and for help to not holding a grudge against those who turned our concerns down.

Rebecca

I’m not sure if such a lie should be forgiven. At least not ‘forgiven’ in the sense of: aw he meant well, let’s drop all charges, after all we all make mistakes.
Because this is a very, very serious matter. I’m thinking of Luke 17v2 about the millstone around the neck of someone misleading so many of God’s children…

Morten Stubkjær Klausen

We should forgive, but that doesn’t mean, it shouldn’t have consequences. It should both in legal and ministerial sense.

Rebecca

Ok, then I agree. It’s just that sometimes forgiveness is mistaken for simply ignoring the problem.

Morten Stubkjær Klausen

Agreed, and I can see how my original comment could be a bit misleading in that sense

No mention here of Tony plagiarising my book. “His” book “Passion” was plagiarised from my book “Evangelism. Strategies from Heaven in the War For Souls”. Despite blatant evidence of the fact, “Authentic” continues to print and distribute “Passion”. What does that tell you about “Authentic”. You know the answer.

The false representation of unverified propositions and baseless assertions as truth is known as lying. It’s still lying even if we call it “faith”.
We either have knowledge or we assign probabilities. To “believe” is necessarily about those three letters in the middle.

Truth is fact that has been verified.
Fact is verifiable information about reality or actuality.

There are other books of this nature … “From Witchcraft to Christ”, “The Late Great Planet Earth”, etc.

I find this story amusing in light of what I used to believe as an evangelical Christian. But what I find most amusing is that evangelical Christians should be asking for proof.

Like you, Jesus Smith, I used to believe (for 46 years), but when at the age of 60 I began to require hard evidence for my faith, I could find none. And thus my faith in God vanished without a trace.

Brent meredith

Romans 1v20-25 clearly indicates what proof there is available. If you are blind to it, it is willingly being blind.
But what could truly convince someone of God and christianity being true? Surely everyone could find a standard that God would not stoop to fulfil just so a person could be gratified intellectually… the problem is not lack of evidence but lack of thankfulness, pride in knowledge, lack of self examination and acknowledgement that we, thats me and you too, are all wicked, corrupt and perverse people at heart and need a saviour.

If we could admit this to ourselves and to God, He would willingly reveal himself to a human soul that we could never ‘prove’ to anyone else but would make faith in him unshakeable and eternal. May God the creator, Jesus Christ, be blessed for ever!
This happened to me – I know I am wicked, unrighteous and deserving of death, yet Jesus willingly accepts my contrite spirit and has given me a certain promise of eternal life by the death, burial and resurrection from the dead. Death is defeated, and I am free! praise Him for ever!

Rebecca

I must say that I’m irritated by your comment. If a God won’t “stoop…so a person could be gratified intellectually” (Or am I misinterpreting your comment?) won’t really stoop to dying on a cross now, would he? Either God cares about people or he doesn’t. If he cares about saving people and having a relationship with them, surely he will provide proof for a person searching for it. He does say: “Seek and you shall find” (Matth. 7v7) And I know of at least two people who set off by disbelieving the Gospel but then found evidence that pointed them towards Jesus Christ (C.S. Lewis and Josh MacDowall) If God can’t satisfy the intellect, how can he satisfy the heart and soul? I think it only makes sense to make sure a faith stands the test of fact before handing your life over to it.

Rebecca

Hi, I’m really interested in what caused you to quit believing in God.
Was it ‘just’ the lack of evidence? Were you unable to see God act in your life and did that make you quit? Because 46 years is a long time, and being a Theologian at that…what changed your mind?

Julian, I’m saying that we have an ethical and moral duty to doubt in the absence of solid reasoned evidence and high probability.
Of course, if I have solid reasoned evidence informing me of high probability, I have no reason to believe at all.

Darrell Jackson

As with mortonstubkjaer, I had to deal with Anthony as he tried to intervene in the youth work of a baptist Church in S Oxford. It was a very uncomfortable time and visiting him in his home to explain why we could not accede to his ‘demands’ prompted a manipulative outburst. Shortly afterwards he left town in a hurry as a result of his being found to have caused the death of a pedestrian. I’m relieved that this investigation has been conducted and will hopefully help to bring light and truth.

TonyP

For the Record it was not a pedestrian who was killed but a woman riding a Kawasaki motor bike.

Don’t think for a moment Tony will repent and come clean. He is insistent that the falsehoods are “minor discrepancies” which can be righted quite easily by some simple editing of the story. This is ludicrous in the extreme. It’s like saying to a criminal, “what would you have done differently if you hadn’t been caught?” and then freeing the criminal without penalty to have another go. Essentially this is what Authentic media is doing in their recent press release. When you read it, they are leaving a big whole for Tony to jump through. That is to say “Tony, re-write your story. Spin some more lies to cover up the lies you told in the first edition. We’ll then start all over again with the new improved bullet proof Taming the Tiger.” Their motive? Money. Taming the Tiger sold well, and has filled their pockets nicely. It’s the same reason Lance Armstrong was not busted a lot sooner than he was. Lots of people downstream of the revenue source were protecting Lance because they knew if Lance fell over, their income would dry up. Such is the level of corruption and decay inside Authentic. Watch this space.

I was picking this response from Tony. He has chosen not to acknowledge his sin, and remains unrepentant. His strategy of simply making a few simple edits to his book and re-launching it is farcical. If 80% of his existing story is fiction, and plagiarised fiction at that, what is he possibly going to say in the “revised” edition that is not more lies?

It was the lies which gave Tony traction in the first edition. The lies were the exciting bits. Take these out, and the book will be, well, nothing. He didn’t have a Chinese grandfather, didn’t go to China, he’s not half Italian, half Chinese, he’s not a world Kung Fu champion, he didn’t lie down with white tigers, hold molten pots of boiling metal in his bare arms, wasn’t a close protection body guard, didn’t protect anyone, or get into fights, or brawls, hasn’t killed anyone, ever…or anything.

In reality he hung around England, like other hooligans, getting up to no good.

Sadly, his response on http://www.tonyanthony.co.uk just shows that his track record with the law and prison for fraud and perverting the course of justice is just perpetuating.

Tony is simply living “stuff” that has been happpening in his life for years now.

Old patterns of behaviour are alive and well. It seems Tony has not come to the place yet in himself where he is prepared to face his demons.

On his web site, he says he gave away many of his books. This is true. When I organised a six week tour of NZ for Tony in 2006, it became apparent that Tony’s issue was low self esteem. He wanted to be famous, the James bond of the global Christian scene. He was giving copious copies of the book away, not to get the gospel out, but to spread and exult his own name.

Tony is a sociopath.

Here are 10 signs for spotting a sociopath

#1) Sociopaths are charming. Sociopaths have high charisma and tend to attract a following just because people want to be around them. They have a “glow” about them that attracts people who typically seek guidance or direction. They often appear to be sexy or have a strong sexual attraction. Not all sexy people are sociopaths, obviously, but watch out for over-the-top sexual appetites and weird fetishes.

#2) Sociopaths are more spontaneous and intense than other people. They tend to do bizarre, sometimes erratic things that most regular people wouldn’t do. They are unbound by normal social contracts. Their behavior often seems irrational or extremely risky.

#3) Sociopaths are incapable of feeling shame, guilt or remorse. Their brains simply lack the circuitry to process such emotions. This allows them to betray people, threaten people or harm people without giving it a second thought. They pursue any action that serves their own self interest even if it seriously harms others. This is why you will find many very “successful” sociopaths in high levels of government, in any nation.

#4) Sociopaths invent outrageous lies about their experiences. They wildly exaggerate things to the point of absurdity, but when they describe it to you in a storytelling format, for some reason it sounds believable at the time.

#5) Sociopaths seek to dominate others and “win” at all costs. They hate to lose any argument or fight and will viciously defend their web of lies, even to the point of logical absurdity.

#6) Sociopaths tend to be highly intelligent, but they use their brainpower to deceive others rather than empower them. Their high IQs often makes them dangerous. This is why many of the best-known serial killers who successfully evaded law enforcement were sociopaths.

#7) Sociopaths are incapable of love and are entirely self-serving. They may feign love or compassion in order to get what they want, but they don’t actually FEEL love in the way that you or I do.

#8) Sociopaths speak poetically. They are master wordsmiths, able to deliver a running “stream of consciousness” monologue that is both intriguing and hypnotic. They are expert storytellers and even poets. As a great example of this in action, watch this interview of Charles Manson on YouTube.

#9) Sociopaths never apologize. They are never wrong. They never feel guilt. They can never apologize. Even if shown proof that they were wrong, they will refuse to apologize and instead go on the attack.

#10) Sociopaths are delusional and literally believe that what they say becomes truth merely because they say it! Charles Manson, the sociopathic murderer, is famous for saying, “I’ve never killed anyone! I don’t need to kill anyone! I THINK it! I have it HERE! (Pointing to his temple.) I don’t need to live in this physical realm…”

Do a search of sociopath on Google and see for yourself – Tony fits the profile, particularly points 3 -10 EXACTLY!

He is not a well man.

The whole situation is tragic really.

My question is not “what will Tony do next?” but “what will God do next?”.

God will not be mocked. If Tony has rejected the authority of his board, his pastors and leaders at his home church, and every other person over him, what hope his there but only the expectation of a fearful judgement? We ought to all be praying for Tony to repent and get help before this happens.

My other question concerns Authentic media. I am picking they will pick up Tony’s “revised edition” and run with it. The revenue stream coming from Taming the Tiger was too much for them to resist, and will continue to be so in the future.

Mammon, not God, or integrity, it seems, rules at “authentic”.

How do I know this? They have not pulled the book “Passion” from their books sales, yet they know it too was plagiarised.

Is seems they only pull books when the situation becomes embarrassing for them, and not a moment sooner.

“Authentic” (the name is now laughable) knew about the fiction in Taming the Tiger long ago, but chose to nothing about it until the heat in the kitchen became too hot, and then they tried to say they instigated the investigation. They didn’t instigate the investigation. A team of concerned Christians beat them to it, and Authentic was forced to join in, albeit reluctantly.

I say this, having a Bachelor of Theology and having been a missionary in the UK for several years with Operation Mobilisation: Your points defining a Sociopath exquisitely fit the description of God in the O.T. For every point in your list, I can find many verses, nay, BOOKS of the OT that illustrate God’s behavior exactly matching these points.

Tony Pancaldi

Correcttion: You say ” didn’t protect anyone, or get into fights, or brawls, hasn’t killed anyone, ever…”
He did kill Elizabeth Bracewell after knocking her off her motorbike, he skidded across a stop sign. He was subsequently convicted and imprisoned in the UK for this and other related offences as well as four counts seperately for Harrassment – for which he recievced four seperate prison sentences – one of 6 months and three for a further three months each.

Hi Tony, thanks for the correction about Tony not having killed anyone. I was referring to all the references in his book about his killing sprees as a close protection body guard.

Dan W

The story reminds e of the Australian Youth pastor who fabricated his Illness of Cancer, then got healed, then wrote a song called healer which charted at no1 in the Aus chart’s & subsequently got exposed but at least he admitted he was screwed up. This story sound like a massive embarrassment to the church and to the Christian media &(out of touch) culture here in the UK…

I’d forgotten about that business, actually. But there are some striking similarities – fake something because it will give you more ‘cred’ with a rather-too-gullible Christian public.

eric

Hi,

i would not call that story for a fake. Admittedly, the story about him being sick in terminal cancer was a fake. But he was struggling with addiction to porn, and in the Church, unfortunately, that’s not soemthing you talk loud or writes songs about. It’s much easier to talk about cancer. He felt a need of healing from his addiction, and certainly from his lies, and that’s how i listen to his song. Michael surely is a messed up person, but so am I, and I think the Gospel is about messed up people puttng their faith in God to one day heal them, in body, spirit and soul.

Some of us do experience healing in this life, some of us do have to fight and fall and long, and cry and wait. But one blessed Day, I know that i will be made whole, even if I have to wait for Jesus’ return!

So I continue singing “Healer”:

You hold my every moment
You calm my raging seas
You walk with me through fire
And heal all my disease

I trust in You
I trust in You

I believe You’re my Healer
I believe You are all I need
I believe You’re my Portion
I believe You’re more than enough for me
Jesus You’re all I need

“I firmly believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead – that is the truth. It is hypocritical for an evangelist therefore to fabricate stories about himself whilst proclaiming the truth.”

That’s rich: there is less real, bible-independent evidence that the Jesus’ resurrection actually took place, than the evidence that Anthony posits for his escapades. I think the early-church evangelists fabricated stories, just as Anthony has done. There is NO historical extra-biblical verification of the “resurrection”, so it is not the “truth”, it’s simply something stated in the NT that you accept by faith, without evidence.

crosswire

There isn’t any direct evidence that I’m aware of; but there is evidence – albeit of various accounts and much of it circumstantial.

But if the resurrection wasn’t historical; what made 12 ordinary people who had seen their leader brutally tortured and crucified keep their faith rather than run and recount? What gave them the courage and strength to keep this faith when they could have recanted to save their lives? What enabled 12 ordinary people in an occupied territory the power to start a movement that not only changed the world; but us a movement that is not only still around today, 2,000 years later, but a movement that after all this time is still growing – and growing at a faster rate than ever.

I’m not a theologian; so I can’t answer your question directly. But there are theologians who can point to evidence.

But, if there was direct physical evidence (impossible in the absence of videos and cameras) I think some people would still not believe; despite the other corroborating, supporting evidence there is.

All excellent points, and all true, in a certain sense. But none of them make Christianity unique, or more true, than many many other religions and causes. Other religions/belief systems claim just as extraordinary miracles (such as virgin births and being raised from the dead), are OLDER than 2,000 years, and were spread by ordinary people. Shouldn’t choosing one of them, in order to avoid eternal torture, be more than a matter of faith, or luckily choosing the correct one? Shouldn’t there be tangible evidence that God would provide to prove that a particular religion is true and the others are false? Such evidence does not exist. You disbelieve the existence of all Gods apart from your own. Me too, but I also include your God in my disbelief.

Dan

Yes, Christianity is unique: no other religion is based on the resurrection of its founder. No other religious founder was presaged by such a range of prophecies, nor confirmed his divine mission by such a range of miracles widely reported well within the lifetime of the people who saw them. In this prophetic sense, it’s actually much older than 2,000 years old. Moreover the Bible is unique in explaining the origin of pagan religions, via the data in Genesis 10 in particular. There is no reason to exclude the Bible from evidence to be considered, seeing that it’s the most accurate history book of the ancient world, as shown by 45-lingual [sic] Prof. Robert Dick Wilson (never heard of him? Then you are out of your depth, end of). Your final quip is a trick resting on ambiguation: the issue is whether the world has a Creator or not. If you deny this you must solve the chirality problem and a host of others you will find impossible.

Mr Pink

It’s funny because this author’s biography is more believable than the Bible.